Cesar Azpilicueta had the word of Roman Abramovich, the previous Chelsea owner, to leave this summer if he received an offer that he liked. That led him towards FC Barcelona, but the Blues renewed his deal unilaterally by one season, making it much harder for him to come back. In the end he was not able to and he decided to renew for two seasons with Chelsea, a club where he is very comfortable and is a reference point for other players.
One of the key reasons that he did not come was because new owner Todd Boehly, did not want to let him go. Soon after he arrived he insisted that did not happen because Chelsea needed a leader like him at the back. They did negotiate with Barcelona and Boehly dined with the Catalan club out of respect for Azpilicueta.
However, from the first moment, Chelsea tried not to sell him. They asked for a higher figure than they paid them back in 2012, a way of earning time to see if Barcelona were seriously capable of making a bid for their captain, and later on the visit to Barcelona asked Laporta to give them time to find a substitute. The reality is that Chelsea never wanted to sell him and were asking for too much, given his market value. They didn’t want to lose their captain who is a club legend, and, the Premier League is just about to start and they haven’t signed any other right-backs.
The coach and Cesar Azpilicueta wanted to sort out the issue before the start of the season and in the end he stays in London and Barcelona will need to look elsewhere.
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